Continuing our lateral move through the families, this update concerns the family of Pietro Caruso and Erminia Flora. Their oldest son, Domenico was married to Lena Policastro, from the previous update.
So far this family has been the hardest to research because for some of the children their mother is listed as Erminia Flora (from Sassano) and others it is Rosa Castella. While we could easily say there are 2 Pietro Carusos (or the same one) married to different people, it isn’t so simple. Passenger records from the Verona in 1909 clearly show that Erminia joined her husband in New Jersey with all the Italian born children.
However starting in the 1910 census and going forward, the mother is named Rosa. She appears in the Social Security Claims index as the mother of Armando & Domenico, but Domenico’s birth record clearly has Erminia. as his mother. Erminia appears in the Claims index as the mother of Mildred Rega.
The only logical conclusions are 1) that Erminia died between 1909 and 1910 (for which there is no evidence) and Pietro married Rosa Castella (for which there is also no evidence). Rosa died in late November/early December 1930, but there is no obituary to substantiate any siblings or tie her back to a Castella family or 2) Rosa is her middle name, and Castella is the surname of the family that fostered her (as she is listed on her birth & marriage record as having unknown parents).
This highlights some of the decision making process inherent to genealogy work; sometimes everything is clear, and sometimes it isn’t and a judgement call needs to be made. Because all the evidence in the census records suggests that Rosa Castella & Erminia Flora are in fact the same person, we’re going to leave it as it is, and add an explanatory note.
Other updates include adding burial information & images from the Monte San Giacomo cemetery for surnames beginning with ‘B’ (Bortone, Bucino etc…)
Because we’ve noticed that some obviously deceased people are being treated as if they were alive (and therefore hidden) on the site, we’re reinstating the 100 year rule (death is assumed to have occurred within 100 years of birth/estimated birth.
You may notice some changes in the surnames….more on that in our next post!